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About Me

I’ve been cooking as long as I can remember, professionally since I was 17. I love everything about food, and spent my life pursuing it. I was an apprentice pastry chef in Innsbruck Austria before I even went to cooking school. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America I became a full fledged Pastry Chef for a high end country club, and love it as I did there was so much more to be done, which eventually led me to catering. My catering company is just what I want it to be; I get to do something different everyday either in the kitchen or helping a bride design her ideal wedding or just researching new recipes out of my own imagination.
If you would like more details about my career, please the About page on my website www.SonomaCaterers.com.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

As I started writing this I noticed that 3 out of the last 4 blogs were on wine or cocktails, hope I'm not sending the wrong message here :) Anyway, in writing my October column for the Petaluma Post I needed to develop a perfect pear martini recipe, which required some experimenting with recipes and ingredients, but was too much to include in the column, so here we are.

For the pear I selected Bartlett pears, they are my favorite, in season and work very well for this.

For the pear juice I purchased Kerns Pear Nectar and Looza Pear Juice. After tasting I'd definitely go with Looza, it has a smoother texture and richer pear taste. I also tried Sonoma Sparkling Pear Cider, not at all like a juice, but good potential for modifying the flavor and adding some bubbles to a cocktail.

I've sampled many pear vodkas over the years, but always return to Absolut Pear, it has the cleanest taste without that synthetic aftertaste many flavored alcohols can have.

The final recipe I settled on for my Perfect Pear Martini was (serving 2):

To make the pear puree I combined 1 chunked up Bartlett Pear and 1/4 cup Looza Pear Juice and pureed with a hand blender until it was about half the consistency of apple sauce. Then simply combined all the ingredients in a shaker with ice and shook hard. Then served up in a martini glass. It had an excellent pear flavor without being overly sweet, with just a touch of bite from the vodka remaining.

A note on agave syrup. This is the agave (of tequila fame) based sweetener that I often use instead of simple syrup. Despite its tequila association there is no alcohol in it, nor any tequila flavor. It is very mild in flavor, the flavor typically disappearing into whatever it is combined with, and it mixes easily since it doesn't need to disolve. In fact hubby uses this as his coffee sweetener. Plus it has a lower glycemic index so it is better for you.

Another experiment which I think was even more drinkable, but not as quintessentially pear, was a Cranberry Pear Martini.